As vigilant and watchful as we are over our children, there are some things we’ll never know about them, and not just because they sometimes keep things from us. There’s a whole internal world we are not privy to. Yes, that includes their innermost thoughts and feelings they don’t express. But most terrifyingly, that may also include lurking health issues.
That was the case for one family in Georgia. A 13-year-old girl went to the hospital complaining of a headache. Hours later she was dead, having suffered from undiagnosed leukemia.
Julia Chavez visited urgent care first.
The teen complained of a headache and earache one weekend, according to the Augusta Chronicle. She visited an urgent care center, and doctors diagnosed her with an infection and prescribed an antibiotic. But by Sunday morning, she collapsed.
Julia was dealing with internal bleeding.
Her parents rushed her to the emergency room. Doctors there ordered a CT scan and blood test. The results showed something shocking: Chavez had internal bleeding caused by leukemia.
“She had bleeding in her brain, lungs, stomach … everywhere,” her father, Dennis Lee Chavez, wrote on social media, according to WSB-TV via Yahoo! News. “That’s where we found out she had leukemia. It came on so hard and so fast. Doctors told us there was no way we could have known.”
She died at 1:35 a.m. February 13, a Monday, just hours after she was admitted.
'She never had more than a sniffle,' Julia's mother said.
“We never knew she had it,” Chavez’s mother, Jenna Randall, told the Chronicle. “She was a bubbly, bright, beautiful girl. She never had more than a sniffle and she's never been hospitalized for anything since she was born."
Dennis Chavez and his wife said the only thing that was unusual about Julia was that she was often tired and bruised easily. But they attributed that to her being an active teenager.
"When she would get a bruise, we would ask how she got it, and she would say, 'I don't know,' and shrug it off," her father said, the Chronicle reported. "We thought that it was because she's got a bit of tomboy in her."
Julia's teacher said she was the kindest student.
The teen is described lovingly by her family and teachers. Her fifth-period teacher, Caroline Pinkston, shared come kind words about the girl. “Julia was the kindest, most big-hearted child I think I’ve ever met; even her speaking voice was sweet," Pinkston wrote. "She would talk to anyone and make them feel friended.”
Julia's grandfather, Ernie Randall, called her flawless. “God says that nobody is perfect, but I'd put a test to that one by her being perfect,” he said, according to the Chronicle.
She shared a particularly strong bond with her older brother Jackson.
The family said it will be difficult to adjust to her absence.
Jenna Randall said after Julia's death that Jackson told his mother, “Mom, I know she's my sister, but she's my world."
Her grandfather described the two were connected at the hip. “I remember a few years ago I took Jackson to a car show and the whole time we were there, he couldn't have any fun because Julia wasn't with us … It's going take him a long time to get used to [her not being here]."
Julia will be buried in Grovetown on Friday.
